The talk in transportation is always about having safe and reliable school buses. However, the reality is that finding the funds to purchase new buses to support safety and reliability has been increasingly difficult as capital funding has been more difficult to provide.

With nearly $3 billion soon to be made available from the Volkswagen settlement, funding agencies are seeking new and innovative ways to deploy clean transportation solutions. This webinar will not only highlight key programs throughout the U.S. that fund new, cleaner school buses, but also how you can position your fleet to compete and potentially secure Volkswagen funding.

All the talk today is about tomorrow and how automated/autonomous vehicles will impact the future. Often left out of the conversation, however, is the school bus – one of the safest modes of transportation. How will the technological change impacting cars and trucks impact school buses, and what can we expect in the future? Where automated technology is going is what this webinar is all about.

The webinar will go further into detail about how propane can help schools meet their sustainability goals and remain profitable with reliable propane autogas. PERC’s director of autogas business development, Michael Taylor, will provide an overview of how propane buses are helping school districts and private contractors reduce emissions and lower their total cost-of-ownership. The webinar will also feature two users of propane autogas buses, who will speak about their positive experience with propane and how it has been a sustainable, profitable, and reliable fuel for their school district and/or organization. The objectives for this webinar is to increase awareness of the environmental and financial benefits of propane autogas.

This one hour webinar will discuss various aspects of how terrorism relates to pupil transportation. Historical perspectives, current trends, and future forecasts will be examined.

Bret E. Brooks is a senior consultant and the chief operating officer for the private training and consulting firm Gray Ram Tactical, LLC. He specializes in violence related issues and his research and training programs have been used and requested all across North and South America, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. Bret frequently speaks at national and international conferences, and has published numerous articles and books. He can be reached directly at bretbrooks@grayramtacticaltraining.com.

Regardless of climate conditions, pre-conditioning your engine will extend the life of Diesel Particulate Filters, extending regeneration intervals and reducing maintenance costs and failures. DPF failures are costly. Learn how a DPF works and how it fails, and how to protect your fleet and save on these costly repairs.

Attend this webinar to learn why propane autogas buses are the best choice for school transportation — lower total cost-of-ownership compared with diesel buses, scalable and affordable infrastructure options for convenient on-site refueling, and buses from all four major OEMs.

The main goal of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is to teach independence and life skills to special needs students. But student transporters often miss the boat by not appropriately or adequately training this student population on how to best use the school bus to learn life skills, including bus safety. By following the lead of special education teachers, student transporters can help students with special needs with hands-on practice and demonstrations in the environment where they are best equipped to learn: The classroom.

Joel Garner Jr., AT&T and Rick Grisham, Cobb County (GA) School District

Learn how Cobb County Schools near Atlanta, GA upgraded its bus transportation communications and vehicle- and time-tracking capabilities with AT&T Enhanced Push-to-Talk with Integrated Dispatch and Actsoft® from AT&T.

What does your training program say about planning to evacuate students with disabilities? What about preschoolers? Do you train them at all? Does your training include the planning steps to be successfully prepared to evacuate their bus? Learn the steps each school bus operator should undertake toward developing a successful plan.

The director of East Bay Clean Cities Coalition and director of fleet services for the City of Oakland, California, will define the most common types of alternative fuel and clean air vehicle grants available for school bus and "white fleet" vehicles nationwide. Fresh off presenting at the STN EXPO, he will identify potential grant funding sources at federal, state and local levels, highlight some recent clean air school bus grant projects, demonstrate how to locate potential grant funding opportunities, identify current some grant funding opportunities, and illustrate how to remain up to date on grant funding opportunities.

The School Transportation Network webinar series returns June 24 as Doug Spiller, Rotary Lift's heavy duty product manager, discusses: the proper methodology for lifting every type of heavy-duty bus or truck; how to make good saddle and adapter choices; the importance of safety in operator and maintenance training, and; how to keep your lifts in tip-top shape through inspection and maintenance.

Learn the benefits of entering into partnerships with law enforcement and the judicial system for prosecuting motorists who illegally pass stopped school buses. School districts experienced in working within their municipalities to make school bus stops safer for their students will share best practices as well as how these agreements have freed up school bus drivers and other transportation staff to focus on what they do best.

School buses provides students with disabilities valuable travel training opportunities. Federal law requires that these students be provided with rides to and from school, and the yellow school bus is a vital part of educating those same children on how to rely on public, mass-transit services. The school bus teaches lessons on independence, self reliance and safety that can benefit students with disabilities for the rest of their lives. Join school transportation consultant Ted Finlayson-Schueler, owner of Safety Rules!, as he discusses how and why student transporters must understand the concept of travel training and offers suggestions on how to develop and implement concepts into their operations. He is scheduled to be joined by two special education teachers and a school psychologist from Clarkstown (N.Y.) Central School District.

In one year, school districts and bus companies must have two-way radio systems that comply with an FCC requirement for a minimum narrowband of 12.5 kHz from the current requirement of 25 kHz. Learn why it is imperative to ensure compliance in advance of the Jan. 1, 2013 deadline and what student transporters can expect in terms of coverage and infrastructure. This webinar is sponsored by Motorola.

Student transportation personnel are likely to see changes in the children under their watch. They see children when they are happy and excited, as well as when they are sick, hurt or upset. More than 100,000 children are missing and exploited, and 700,000 children are abused and neglected each year. Join Dr. Duane L. Dobbert, professor of forensic studies at Florida Gulf Coast University, to learn the nature and behavioral patterns of stranger child predators as well as the behavioral changes seen in children who may be abused. Dobbert will also discuss the critical role school bus drivers play in identifying child sexual predators and children who are being abused, and how drivers and student transportation departments should be involved with Amber Alert systems.

TSA conducts security exercises with various highway modal industry stakeholders each year. This Webcast will discuss the best practices and the lessons learned over six school transportation security exercises conducted since 2009. These exercises have included school transportation operators that operate from rural to large inner city areas, school districts, as well as federal, state and local first responder and law enforcement agencies.

Do you love the bus? Of course you do! But do you know how to set up a "Love the Bus" event for 2011? Are you ready to get the word out to your community AND encourage parents, teachers and school administrators to celebrate "Love the Bus?" This STN webcast will give you the ideas, tools and motivation needed to get an event going in your area. "Love the Bus 2011" is your chance to help create a local education campaign designed to raise awareness about school transportation and an opportunity to thank the hundreds of thousand of people who make the ride to school safe for more than 25 million school children daily. Join us and learn how to make "Love the Bus 2011" work for you!

Part I of this webinar series explains the theory behind why school bus safety begins and ends with the driver. This week's event will present the actions to take to persuade drivers to change their behaviors to avoid unsafe acts. If only the Missouri school bus drivers had been four seconds back and looking ahead, the accident would not have happened.
What can you do to prevent this happening in your district?

Children deserve a quality education, and this means they need to be able to get to and from school ready to learn. The School Transportation Network aims to provide possible solutions and strategies to overcoming the challenges society faces when attempting to provide safe, efficient and cost-effective transportation for the nation's school children. It is presented by School Transportation News, a monthly news and feature magazine that reports on current events affecting school districts, school transporters, educators, parents, public policymakers, and the private enterprise that support them. Webinar topics include transportation technology, alternative fuels, maintenance, management, operations and more.